Many of the dishes that I’ve done for the Vegetarian Tour de France take a long, long time to cook. It’s time to get some quick dishes into this tour. In other words, it’s time for me to work towards the green jersey and go for some sprints.

These Braised Tomatoes are done in no time flat with very little prep work. If you use fresh, local tomatoes, you’ll be treated to a flavorful side dish that’s very quick and easy to prepare.

The 2009 Tour de France has officially begun and so shall the vegetarian culinary tour! To start the tour, we are going to get crunchy, zesty and fried with these Spinach Parmesan Croquettes. (I wouldn’t, however, recommend eating these prior to attempting your individual time trial.)

If you have some precooked rice on hand, this recipe takes no time at all to make. And, as a bonus, you get to get your hands all goopy forming the croquettes into little cylinders. I was able to form 14 croquettes using this recipe below. We almost ate all of them in one sitting.

Add oil to a pan and set to medium high heat. Add onions in oil until light golden and translucent. Add cooked rice, spinach, spices, and lemon juice. Stir to combine.

Add cheese.

Turn heat to low and add egg making sure that it doesn’t cook too quickly. Remove pan from heat and allow mixture to cool.

Once mixture is cool enough to handle with your hands. Crack two eggs in a small bowl and beat lightly with a fork. Add bread crumbs to another bowl. Form spinach mixture into small, cylindrical rolls.

Dip into egg mixture…

and then into breadcrumbs.

Place uncooked croquettes on a plate until all are breaded. (I placed mine on a sheet of parchment paper.)

Coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet with oil and turn heat to on medium high. Add croquettes into oil and fry until all sides become golden brown.

After hosting a weekend party, I found that I was inundated with leftover goat cheese. So, I’ve sprinkled it over almost everything I’ve eaten this week. The asparagus from my CSA delivery was no exception.

This was a super-quick and easy throw together recipe that I didn’t even take the time to measure out each ingredient. It’s easy to do this recipe just by feel and eye…

Breaded Asparagus with Goat Cheese
By: Megabeth

Asparagus

Approx 2 T butter, melted (depending on how much asparagus you are using)

Bread crumbs (or panko crumbs)

Goat cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim woody ends of asparagus and place in glass baking dish. Drizzle 1/2 of melted butter over asparagus and move them around to coat with the butter. Sprinkle bread crumbs over asparagus. Add pieces of goat cheese on top of asparagus. Drizzle rest of butter on top of goat cheese and bread crumbs.